Displaying items by tag: decarbonisation

Canada: Geocycle and Lafarge Canada, together with the Department of Natural Resources Canada, have opened a new low-carbon fuel plant at the Lafarge Canada Brookfield cement plant in Nova Scotia. The facility, which cost over US$7.5m and received US$2.6m in federal funding, will convert 14,000t/yr of discarded materials headed for landfill into low-carbon fuels, reducing the plant's reliance on fossil fuels and its carbon emissions by over 12,000t/yr. The materials to be repurposed include plastic and construction and demolition materials. The cement created at the facility will be used to make concrete for construction projects in the local area and is expected to create jobs for the local community.

President and CEO of Lafarge Canada (East) David Redfern said "Cement is a vital component of infrastructure projects that contribute to economic growth. By implementing sustainable and innovative solutions to reduce our environmental impact, we're serving the needs of our customers and the communities in which we operate both now and in the future. Our continued collaboration with Geocycle Canada reinforces our commitment to invest and advance circular construction in Canada."

Head of Geocycle North America Sophie Wu said "At Geocycle, our solutions are circular by design. We are happy to take another significant step in our ongoing partnership with Lafarge Canada. This is a great example of our work toward the decarbonisation of the construction industry in Canada."

Spain: Votorantim Cimentos and gas company Enagás have signed an agreement to jointly develop projects for the sustainable management of CO₂. Votorantim Cimentos will focus on CO₂ capture technology at its cement plants, while Enagás will explore solutions for the transport, liquefaction, storage and loading of CO₂ at its regasification terminals. The partnership also includes potential joint applications for European funding to further these initiatives.

Enagás CEO Arturo Gonzalo said "Enagás and Votorantim Cimentos have clear synergies to jointly advance their commitments to reduce their carbon footprint and, based on the knowledge of their areas of activity, they have the opportunity to take the initiative to develop more effective sustainable CO₂ management technologies, which will be key to achieving the decarbonisation objectives of Spain and Europe.”

Qatar: The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change has organised a symposium to launch a new ‘green’ cement made from sewage waste, with aims to support environmental sustainability and the circular economy in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030. The symposium highlighted the role of scientific research in transforming sewage into green cement. The cement is produced by treating sludge, resulting from solid sewage waste by burning, grinding and mixing it with catalysts, then is practically applied in the manufacture of building blocks and foam concrete. The amount of accumulated sewage waste is estimated at about 40,000t/yr, which can be used to produce 40 million bricks or 150,000m³/yr of foam concrete.

US: Holcim has invested in Sublime Systems to expand its range of solutions to decarbonise the construction industry. The partnership will advance Sublime’s first commercial manufacturing facility in Massachusetts, US, giving Holcim a large share of Sublime Cement produced there through a binding offtake reservation. Sublime’s first commercial-scale plant is set to start production in 2026 with a capacity of 30,000t/yr.

Chief sustainability officer at Holcim, Nollaig Forrest, said “The Sublime Systems team has developed a unique technology to decarbonise cement, cutting across the entire production process from the use of clean electricity to carbon-free raw materials. We are excited about this technology’s potential and are delighted to be partnering to bring it to market at scale. This investment advances our strategy to decarbonise construction by scaling up the most innovative technologies across our operations.”

CEO and cofounder of Sublime Systems, Leah Ellis, said “In the cement industry, scale is everything. We are proud to collaborate with Holcim, which supports our mission of swift and massive impact. By pairing Sublime’s technology with Holcim’s advanced global operations from manufacturing and logistics to commercial distribution, we can scale up our impact together.”

Argentina: Holcim Argentina has introduced the first 100% electric mining truck in the quarry mining industry in Mendoza Province, according to the company. The ‘Pure Electric Mining’ truck, belonging to the XGMT brand, is reportedly set to reduce CO₂ emissions by more than 225t/yr. It also claims to offer further benefits, including reduced operating costs and improved raw material homogeneity. The truck can transport up to 72t and has an energy recovery braking system, allowing the battery to be charged during braking to reduce energy consumption and improve operating efficiency.

Head of decarbonisation at Holcim Argentina, engineer Marilina Moro, said “Sustainability is at the core of our strategy, and as part of this path, we aim to reduce our impact on the planet. That means transforming each of our processes throughout the company's value chain.”

Egypt: A new waste heat recovery system has been inaugurated at Heidelberg Materials Egypt's Helwan Cement plant. The US$30m system is expected to produce 18MW of energy, equating to a saving of 40,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions.

Sweden: Heidelberg Materials' Slite CCS project in Gotland has received new funding. The Just Transition Fund has provided approximately €6.1m to support project preparation from 2024 to 2026, aiming for operational readiness by 2030. The project targets the creation of a fully decarbonised plant with the capacity to capture 1.8Mt/yr of CO₂, potentially reducing Sweden's total emissions by 4%.

Greece: Titan Group has launched a sustainability-linked financing framework, aligning its financial strategy with its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. This framework supports the company's sustainable growth ambitions under its Green Growth Strategy 2026. Future notes will fund general corporate purposes, including sustainable projects and decarbonisation efforts towards Titan’s transition to net-zero emissions.

Chief sustainability and innovation officer Leonidas Canellopoulos said “Transforming the building materials industry towards a more sustainable, net-zero future requires significant investments, with sustainable finance playing a crucial role in this transformation. The framework will enable Titan to attract a broader range of investors, including those focused on sustainable investments and ESG portfolios. Our financial and sustainability strategies are now aligned under a solid framework, further strengthening our stakeholders’ confidence and trust.”

US: The Continental Cement Davenport plant in Buffalo, Iowa, has celebrated the expansion of its facility, which now enables the reuse of post-consumer materials. This initiative will substitute approximately 50,000t/yr of fossil fuels with discarded materials that would otherwise be incinerated or sent to landfill.

Denmark: Denmark's first CO₂ storage facility is now ready to store CO₂ in the North Sea, designed for large-scale CO₂ containment to combat climate change, according to a press release from project leaders INEOS Denmark. The Project Greensand initiative has completed its pilot phase, confirming permanent CO₂ storage in the Nini West reservoir, 1800m below the seabed.

Following the pilot phase's success, the launch of large-scale CO₂ storage is expected by late 2025 or early 2026, with ambitions to store up to 8Mt/yr by 2030. An investigation is also underway to determine the possibility of storing CO₂ underground on land in Denmark, with the company obtaining an exploration licence from the Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities earlier in 2024 for an area of Jutland in the Gassum reservoir.

Country manager at INEOS Denmark and Commercial Director at INEOS Energy, Mads Gade said “We emphasised that Denmark has moved to the forefront of CCS in the world when we stored the first CO₂ in the North Sea. Now we are in the process of investigating how to take the next step, and here we stand on the shoulders of the invaluable experience from Project Greensand's pilot. We are keen to continue this momentum with an ambition that Greensand will be the first CO₂ storage facility in operation in the EU, and we are now awaiting the Danish authorities' approval of a permanent storage. This is an important step, because if Denmark takes just 5% of a future CCS market in Europe, it could mean up to 9000 jobs, with an economic potential of US$7.4bn. At the same time, we can support the EU's objectives, because we have all the prerequisites to create a new industry that is part of the solution to the challenges of the climate.”